Hello world. I'm Matt Ward, sharing a little bit about myself.

My public life started with my swimming back in 2008. Due a disability in my hip, there wasn't many sports I could do, and so I approached swimming as a great way for exercise. Not long after getting into the competitive scene of swimming, however, I found that I had a knack for it and was able to compete at national events, and I even made it to the finals at the Olympic Trials in 2016.

It's crazy how many Matthews there are - I still remember being in a race where 3 out of the 8 swimmers where all named Matt. Since moving into new pursuits, I've adopted the name Mr. Chocolate Salmon to help people find the content I create.

Game Development has been one such hobby. Programming itself has been a huge fascination of mine for some time, and it's currently where my professional work has been. But there's something about using code to create games and immersive experiences that really captivates me. Gremlins Brew is one such project I worked on while at university, developing a co-op game in 10 months that was present at Pax Australia in 2019. Though I've only been able to do smaller projects since then, I'm still keen to do at least one more larger game if I ever get the chance.

The other interest that has been with me most of my life is music. I have a YouTube channel where I upload piano covers, but I also enjoy composing music, with a couple of my pieces already on Spotify.

Creative pursuits are obviously a huge interest of mine, and other things I hope to achieve one day include: publishing a novel, teaming up with some singers to release songs with lyrics, building a DIY arcade console, and of course exploring other projects with my game development.

Thanks for tagging along and reading through. Feel free to come check out my portfolio, or come say hi on Twitter!